A SINCERE OVERTURE
Posted on July 21, 2018
Here Is Where . . . a Sincere and Creative Author Mounts a Charm Offensive
I'm teaching my 25th class of students and love being a teacher. My other passion is writing, and it's a path that has grown more and more authentic to me these past seven years. This post is an effort to mobilize those of you who haven't tried my projects to take the plunge.
I'm a writer who cleverly tells tales featuring flawed characters alongside wildly inventive fantasy creatures and settings. What follows is a numbered list of reasons why you should try my book, Here Is Where I . . . Wield a Really Big Sword.
1.It's a fusion of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Star Trek―in that it features a side character, a red shirt, who is suddenly thrust into the role of the main hero when he witnesses the quite heroically-together fellow's demise. He soon finds himself knee-deep in magic and joined by a band of quirky characters who make for quite the snarky teenage entourage.
2.I know teen angst. Mostly because it's so easy to draw from my own high school experiences alongside the fact that I get to peer into the struggles involved in growing up with my own students.
3.The book is firmly a YA adventure, but I always layer my works so that they can be enjoyed by adults as well. I make a deliberate effort to offer narrative complexity and themes that can be enjoyed by all. This is ingrained in my works as I am a big fan of how Pixar pulls this off.
4.My creatures always have a clever twist. A genie is never simply a genie. A dragon is never just a magnificent fire-breather. I bring a modern knack for irony and sly wit to the creatures I create. This book is a great showcase of this skill.
5.My characters are flawed and evolve. You'll find every cast member has a plot trajectory of their own making.
6.I am not big on pushing my work on folks. With all the media choices vying for your attention, it's hard to get noticed. I haven't gotten the big break that leads to my writing delivering a decent income. Yet. That's where you come in. Take the time to support a writer who's in it for the long haul and has a surplus of imagination. You'll be investing in a guy who will deliver stories for many years to come. I've penned 23 novels in seven years and only made a pittance. Imagine what my output will look like in another seven years if larger sales increase my drive and momentum. I might go from 2-3 books a year to 3-4.
7.You could take credit for saying you discovered me and helped nurture me into the wildly successful, but still humble, overnight sensation.
8.When you buy one of my books, the small profit doesn't go to financing an addition to someone's summer home. More than likely it'll help pay for the last few months of braces or put a dent in our looming college tuition bill.
9.Fantasy may not be your cup of tea, but this novel goes beyond that genre. It tells a human story of what it means to grow up and overcome obstacles both magical and hormonal.
10.You are in for a treat just with the imaginative and long-winded chapter titles in this sucker alone. I take great care in my witty chapter titles. Ex: Here Is Where I . . . Learn Grueling Interrogation Techniques Can Result In a Soggy Outcome For All Involved or Here is Where I . . . Try to Come Off Breezy and Clever With My Strategizing
11.The three fates play a critical role in this story, and one of them is super cute and the easiest immortal character to be crushing on this side of Neil Gaiman's Death (his Goth character not his actual demise, I'm not wishing him to meet an ugly fate here).
12.And if this isn't a book for you, then how about sending a print copy to a cousin, brother, sister, grandmother, niece, or nephew who likes escaping into magical worlds? It might just ratchet up your coolness status with said relative.
Hopefully this will get you to purchase this lovely book.